My Birthday

Well, what can I say? I will, of course, be sending out individual emails later- once I am fully recovered from the festivities but I thought that it was a good idea to get something out now so that you know I am still alive.

Alive but only just. It all started on Friday night- I thought that a quiet night would be in order so I went for dinner with Katie and onto a movie. We saw Troy which took up a good part of the evening. Which meant that we arrived at Bumpin just as the fun was really beginning to start. Left the bar when it shut and went onto the Warehouse (my boss’s bar) and stayed there way above and beyond the call of duty. Then hit the norae bang- the singing room for a bit of three way karaoke. Forgot that I was losing my voice due to the cold that I had picked up earlier in the week so it really wasn’t my finest performance. Leaving the darkness of the singing room only to walk into daylight was a bit of a shock to us quiet night girls. Obviously we didn’t even question the fact that some mates were outside sitting in a car and we just got in and went to thesounded good and really gave us no hint that the finished product would also contain peanut beach. Watched the sun reach even further into the sky then went for breakfast. Weird fusion breakfast. Which took ages to prepare and wasn’t exactly what we had ordered, The owner of the coffee shop told us that it would be ham, cheese and egg sandwiches all round. Which butter and strawberry jam along with the promised egg, ham and cheese. The guy seemed pretty put out when we showed our disgust and only replaced half of the original quantity.

Back to the beach and then home at around 8- I had got visitors coming over that afternoon, after all. Got home around twenty minutes before the school started a festival complete with drums and shouting- which was challenged by the dogs next to my house to see who would win the crown of thing most likely to keep Helen awake when she really needed to sleep. It was too close to call and I know that it doesn’t help but I still had to shout at them both. Did manage to get a few zzz’s though. Then Margo arrived and the fun started. We chatted and hungout for few hours before Sam plus entourage arrived.

With the addition of Sam, Cam, Sejin and Heidi things were getting a bit crowded at Chez Helen so we hit the beach. And polished off a bottle of wine at the great wine bar overlooking the beach there. Soon we had been joined by Nanette and Jennifer, Gangneung locals, and bottles of beer seemed to keep appearing. And being emptied, Back downtown and it was time for dinner and welcoming James. Totally overwhelmed the poor galbi restaurant with about 12 foreigners walking into the restaurant hungry. There was live music at Bumpin that night which was pretty cool but we had to hit the Warehouse sooner or later. Not before Sam hit the pavement pretty hard with her arse though. Then she fell asleep in the Warehouse, as did Sejin from what I could make out. Probably time to go home. Which we did and slept around 5ish, I think.

Up the next day and down to the beach to catch up with the Seoul bunch who had slept at a motel there the night before (Margo was safely ensconced in my place). Had a coffee then went for pizza, after which my guests left. And I hit my bed in amazing style- refusing to leave my house again that day.

Monday was a run of the mill day (apart from the addition of a whole big stack of parcels in the mail!!! Hooray!!) and Tuesday I got all excited about my birthday so the nine classes that I had that day hardly even registered on my consciousness, My first class was at 9.15 and I didn’t have time to have my usual afternoon nap before I was in the afternoon classes- leaving them at 9.30 to go to the Warehouse. Where I was overwhelmed by the amount of students that had turned up to drink with me (one of the benefits of teaching mostly adults I guess!) and, more importantly, give me presents! We had to put four or so tables together to seat everyone and set one aside for the gifts.

Steady drinking ensued and many beers later it was time to go back to Bumpin for some tequila abuse of the highest order. I have been told that we left Bumpin only when it closed and we hit a 24 hour sam gyup sal joint for a pig barbecue. Left the restaurant and into daylight and, in an increasingly familiar scenario, went to the beach. And drank lemon soju. And as my day reached its 24th hour we went out on a speed boat for a blast along on the beach. Nanette and Ben went for a swim, having just bought some new swimming clothes from a shop on the seafront (yep, the shops were opening now too!) which I couldn’t, having been told that there was nothing in there to fit me. Yes, I did shed a self pitying tear about my anti-social bulk while my Korean friend tried to comfort me. But they told me that it was effing cold in the water so perhaps it was for the best.

Somehow the time seemed to just rush by at this stage and all of a sudden it was midday- we had drunk several beers sitting on the beach- so we put our heads down for a nap and when I awoke a little while later with a very full bladder, it seemed like a good time to go home. I got into my bed finally at 2pm, Wednesday rather conveniently being a public holiday as it was also Buddha’s birthday- though he failed to make it to my party. The plan to go out and eat spicy food had to be changed as I realised that it was going to be a challenge to keep oxygen down at this stage. I slept for a bit and then some mates come over in the evening. They brought pizza and sympathised with my state as I lay in the beanbag unable to move. Except for Nanette that is, as she was in exactly the same state on my bed. One mouthful of pizza was enough to send me to the bathroom to heave it all back up again. I must say that I felt about a million times better when I got back into the room and was able to be a little sociable finally. Went to bed about midnight last night and don’t feel too bad today- though a little tired,

If anyone tried to call me or talk to me online yesterday I apologise for being unable to communicate at all well.

Thanks for all the cards and gifts and kind thoughts on the day. I will write emails after the weekend as I am heading off to Seoul for the last hurrah of my birthday this weekend before I finally let all the excitement go for another year.
I will be less crap soon, I promise!
Love a totally 30
Helen
xxx

Visa Run to Osaka

Just when we had all given up hope that I would ever make it to Japan, it happened, And with typical Korean efficiency I was told for definite that I would be leaving on Friday late on Thursday night. Never mind, I was glad to get away for the weekend. I decided to combine my visa run (yep, you have to leave the country in order to get a new visa) with a tad of a vacation. Originally I thought that I would head to Tokyo to visit some mates near there but it turned out that I couldn’t get my visa in a day though- so Osaka became the choice of the moment.
Now I went to Japan for the first time last year for approximately seven hours, just enough time to get to the Korean Embassy, get a visa and get back on the plane to Korea. The next time I went was for the sumo tournament in November, when I actually stayed for a whole and entire night. This time I was planning to stay for two whole nights- I would be practically a local by the time that I left on Sunday night.

My flight was leaving at 10am on Friday morning so I caught the last bus out of Gangneung on Thursday night, arriving into the bus terminal at around 2.30am on Friday morning. I looked for a sauna at the bus terminal but the express bus terminal is a scary place in the middle of the night. I got into the elevator and discovered a portal hole into an alternate universe on the second floor. There were people scurrying in and out of the lift on the second floor, all laden with flowers. It was a hive of activity. I can only assume that the portal is only open for a few hours every night and the inhabitants have only this limited time to remove all the flowers from their universe and deposit them in ours. When I reached the sauna door, wiping the pollen off my shirt sleeve, I realised my mistake- this was definitely the kind of sauna where a woman wouldn’t go unless she was ‘working’. I hurried downstairs and through the darkened bus terminal and into the more brightly lit central city bus terminal next door. I spent the night on a bench at the bus terminal.

When I say the night, obviously I mean that I dozed off until 5.30 and then lay awake and got on a bus at 6. Which meant that I arrived at the airport at 7. My luck was in as the checkout desk was open but then it ran out when the lady noticed that my visa had expired the day before and sent me off to immigration. I humbled myself before the immigration guy, apologised for not having left the country the day before, promised never to do it again and left the office with permission to leave the country. Back to the check-in queue, checked in and made it through the gates with plenty of time to spare. Got on the plane and fell asleep immediately. Woke up for food as we were flying over Gangneung, the town that I had left jut 11 hours previously, and shortly after that we were in Kansai airport in Osaka.

I love Japan! What can I say? I have never been there for long enough for things to go wrong or get boring. I was really looking forward to some time away and some time alone. But, being me, by the time I was through immigration (they have changed the entry stamps into Japan so I have a new adornment for my passport!) I had picked up four ‘strays’ and two more people joined us on the subway. Such is the nature of the visa run for English teachers in Korea. When you see a non-Korean face in Korea you tend to assume that they are teachers and so when you see non-Korean faces on the 10am flight to Osaka you tend to assume that they are English teachers on their way to get E2 working visas for Korea. We all seemed to have slightly different variations on the directions. We all agreed on two things- that we had to get off the subway at Namba station and that we should leave through exit 25. Easy enough to get to Namba, only to discover that there were no exits numbers in that part of the huge complex that makes up Namba subway station. It all got a bit ‘Challenge Anneka’ or ‘Amazing Race’ at that stage as we all tried to help each other a little bit but not too much as we all wanted to make it to the Embassy first. But in the end we all made it around the same time, handed over the forms and the money and headed off for lunch.

At which point our group split into those who wanted McDonalds, those who wanted to shop and those that just wanted to piss the next couple of hours away in the pub until the passports were ready for collection. No prizes for guessing which camp I was in, I had come to Japan to shop and this was to be the start of the shopping extravaganza (ha, fooled you there, bet you thought I went to the pub!) Had proper chips and pizza with a Kiwi girl I had met and nosed around the shops for bit. Back to the Embassy and said goodbye to everyone. Back to the shops for another look around. I had already booked a hostel online a few days beforehand so, after an hour or so of looking around, I caught the subway to Nakatsu and found the hostel pretty much straight away.

There is something really satisfying about negotiating your way around an unfamiliar subway system alone. Feeling all smug I checked into the hostel, Sumo backpackers. The prices were cheap, the shower was amazing (though after my night at the bus terminal I probably would have made do with a bucket of cold water and been glad of it!) and the dorm was very pretty and clean. Each of the ten bunks had curtains which could be drawn to make your very own ‘den’ of solitude. I had a nap.

Later I heard some people come into the dorm and so I popped my head out to ask them if they had a guide book that I could have a look at. I saw that there was a tower at Umeda that was open until 10pm which offered great views of the city. I had also spotted Umeda on the subway map earlier so was very confident of myself as I headed out. I am sorry to disappoint you all but I made it with no problems. When I got out of the station I had to walk around a bit before I found the tower. Once there I got into the glass sided elevator which shot me up 35 floors to the glass sided escalator which took me the rest of the way.

What can I say? The views were amazing and I went into my usual photo overload. The viewing deck was actually outside and it was cool which was nice as the day had been so hot and sticky. Inside was a restaurant and a gift shop. I also stopped long enough to win a couple of Tiggers out of a crane machine I found there. Result! Feeling pretty pleased with myself, I caught the subway back to the hostel, after stopping in a sandwich shop and speaking Korean to everyone in there.

Back at the hostel I felt the start of my usual Friday night thirst come on. I went out to the local convenience store to buy some beer to sit on the roof and drink. Halfway to the bright lights of the nearest 7-11 an icy chill touched my soul as I remembered one of the major differences between Japan and Korea- in Japan you can’t buy beer at every handy convenience store and, sure enough, all were dry. Desperation started to hit and I started an increasingly frantic walk to find somewhere to buy a beer, I remembered the beer vending machines in Fukuoka but they proved elusive that night in Osaka. After about twenty minutes I realised that I was back at the foot of the tower that I had so proudly caught a subway to and from earlier that night. It seemed like a good time to give up and turn around and went back to the hostel. And sat on the roof and drank coke and ate Kitkat Chunky. Not the same.

The next day I walked back to Umeda and found the beer vending machine- just the other side of the station from where I had given up the night before. Dammit! Someone else must have felt my frustration to a degree since there appeared to be two large fist shaped dents in the plastic covering the display cans. Never mind, I was pretty certain that I would just have a beer as some as was decently possible. And this proved to be in the grounds of Osaka castle just under an hour later. The castle is a modern reconstruction of the original which burnt down years before (after over two years of living in a country where every building has a plaque outside proclaiming that the original had been burnt down by the Japanese it was good to see that the Japanese had the same devil may care attitude towards fire safety in their own country). To get to the castle I caught a subway ((I was getting pretty handy at this by now) to the Castle stop and then walked through the park to the tower itself. The park was lush and green and a great place to be on a sunny day in Japan. Another thing that I love about being in Japan is people’s total indifference to the fact that I am not a native of their shores. After the ever watching eyes of Korea, it felt good to go about my business unobserved.

I climbed the stairs to the top of the tower to enjoy views of the city in daylight. Then it was back to JR Osaka station and Kyoto, which I had been told that I had to go to by my mates on Thursday night in the bar. What more validation did I need?

The one thing that my mates didn’t mention (and probably didn’t know to be fair) was that there was a festival in Kyoto that day and, although I would be arriving too late to join in the festival madness, I would still suffer the consequences of the lack of accommodation. I made a desparate call around all the hostels I had found in the Lonely Planet the night before but nothing. Shouting over the loud music in the station and fast running out of change, a hostel passed me onto a guesthouse which had space for the night. They gave me directions which would have been fine had I known which part of the station that I was coming out of.

Through the tears of frustration springing to my eyes I saw someone that I had seen the day before at the Embassy. I called out ‘Hey Kiwi’ and she looked up and smiled. Even better was that she had stayed at the hostel the night before and was heading back there herself. Unfortunately she also had no idea where it was. But she did have a map and knew that it was next to Toiji temple so with that information we were able to get the general direction and off we went. We walked through the temple grounds to get there, which wasn’t strictly necessary but it was a pleasant addition to the route dictated by my new geographically challenged mate. We hit the hostel, checked in, got changed and caught a bus out to the red light district- or Geisha district to give it a more tourist friendly name. We had beer and pizza before locating a beer vending machine (with surprising ease) and bought some Kirin and Asashi beer to take to the river, We sat by the river and drank until something had to give and we rushed off to find a toilet. We had a bit of a pub crawl through several bars and generally did a lot of wandering around before it started to rain and it seemed like a good idea to head back to the hostel. I wanted to stop drinking early so I could go sightseeing in the morning- I hadn’t planned on the weather remaining shitty until I left Japan the next day.

But shitty it was. We ran through the temple grounds the next day and got onto a bus soaking wet. There was no shower in the hostel and we had been very hot and now were wet, I was glad that I wasn’t sitting next to our fragrant persons! Forty minutes later and we were back in Namba and finishing off our shopping. Cherie was booked onto an earlier flight than me but, given the blisters, the rain and the alarming lightness of my wallet, I decided to head back to the airport with her. Spent the last of my money in the airport (nice bottle of Baileys to warm me on these cold summer nights, or something like that!) on a variety of crap. Including a lovely new Japanese style dressing gown, Not a kimino but some cotton thing starting with Y, that I forget the name of, but also has large sleeves and is cool as hell (I am wearing it right now!).
Through the gates and skint now I met the girl that I had had lunch with on Friday and we swapped stories from the weekend (I had actually bumped into her in Kyoto the night before, she was heading out as we were heading home). Then it was just a short bus ride back to the express bus terminal in Seoul and three hours over to Gangneung and shortly after 1am I was home. Tired, skint, stinking but very happy with my weekend in Japan.

Lots of love a soon to be 30
Helen
Xxx